328 WILD LIFE IN A SOUTHERN COUNTY. 



woody. Every one who has gathered the beautiful 

 scarlet poppies must have noticed the perfect Maltese 

 cross formed inside the broad petals by the black 

 markings. 



Beetles fly in the evening with such carelessness as 

 to strike against people they come against the face 

 with quite a smart blow. Miserable beetles may 

 sometimes be seen eaten almost hollow within by in- 

 numerable parasites. The labourers call those hairy 

 caterpillars which curl in a circle " devil's rings " 

 a remnant of the old superstition that attributed 

 everything that looked strange to demoniacal agency. 



There is a tendency to variation even in the common 

 buttercup. Not long since I saw one with a double 

 flower ; the petals of each were complete and distinct, 

 the two flowers being set back to back on the top of 

 the stalk. The stem of one of the bryonies withers 

 up so completely that the shrinkage, aided by a little 

 wind, snaps it. Then a bunch of red berries may be 

 seen hanging from the lower boughs of a tree a part 

 of the stem, twined round, remaining there ; the ber- 

 ries look as if belonging to the tree itself, the other 

 part of the stem having fallen to the ground. 



In clay soils the ivy does not attain any large size ; 

 but where there is some admixture of loam or sand 

 it flourishes : I have seen ivy whose main stem grow- 

 ing up the side of an oak was five inches in diameter, 

 and had some pretensions to be called timber. The 

 bulrush, which is usually associated with water, does 

 not grow in a great many brooks and ponds ; in some 



